[deanhigs]

The following statement does not make any sense to me because I don't see any reason why both lone-pairs of electrons would be on the same side of the oxygen atom.... Why aren't they are on opposite sides of the oxygen if the repulsive force is being minimized? 

Statement:  Water has four electron groups so it falls under tetrahedral for the electron-group geometry. The four electron groups are the 2 single bonds to Hydrogen and the 2 lone pairs of Oxygen.  Since water has two lone pairs it's molecular shape is bent. According to the VSEPR theory, the electrons want to minimize repulsion, so as a result, the lone pairs are adjacent from each other.

[Bublik]

If you think of the water molecule 3-dimensionally as a tetrahedral, you'll see that the 2 lone pairs will be adjacent no matter what, and since they have more repelling power, the compress the angle between the two O-H parts from an expected 109.5 to an actual 104.5 degrees.

[adianadiadi]

Opposite means, the geometry is square planar and the angles are 90°. However in tetrahedral, the angles are at 109°. So which is better?